Sunday 30 January 2011

renewing my train ticket

Its that time of year again to renew my train ticket...

My ticket expires on Monday but I thought that I may as well go this morning (when the station is at its quietest) so that I dont have to queue with the hoi polloi on Tuesday morning.  You just know that there will be a long queue what with it being the beginning of the month and all.

There was one person in front of me (so that was ok) when he finished I handed over my current ticket, the cheque (issued by work - I have to pay the money back with an interest free season ticket loan), the lady behind the counter told me that I would need a new photo card, my first thought was wtf?  Have I changed that much in 11 years?  She then asked if I was ok to use the same photo because the new photo card has to now have a bar code on it.  I said that I was ok to use the same photo (I dont exactly want to go through the drama of getting a new photo done) LOL I would have had to make sure that I looked miserable enough to look like I was going to work ;o).

Apparently the system nxea will be using will all be barcoded including the compensation delay vouchers.

LOL James asked me if the person in front of me was being a pain in the ass?   I said not but I was sure that the people in the queue formed behind me thought that I was ;o)

Friday 28 January 2011

the lights stayed on

I went to the toilet yesterday for what can only be described as a "longer visit" and the lights stayed on ;o) I dont remember hearing anyone else come in so hopefully my request to the maintenance guys was carried out ;o).

I went to the toilet yesterday afternoon and the light came on as I opened the door, then I went into one of the toilets and noticed that the middle one was occupied and you could tell that she was having a "longer visit" too and by the stench it was a "much longer visit"!

We flushed the toilets at more or less the same time and I could only have walked out of my toilet three seconds before she did but she was out of there faster than you could say "I need some toilet paper", she didnt even wash her hands!

I wanted to ask her if the lights stayed on for longer before they went off again.

I can only deduce that it was the Italian girl that I see around sometimes as she is the only European that I see around, us English girls would have washed our hands after.

Tuesday 25 January 2011

I have a horrible accent

Ok I can hear my Mum saying "how come the sudden realisation, I have been telling you this for years..." ;o)

We have a broker in our office yesterday today and tomorrow (she is from Brazil) and is in London for a month learning how the London market works - why they have to send her here in January when its cold I dont know!

I was chatting to her yesterday and she mentioned that she department she works in covers fine arts - so I asked if she had been to any art galleries (on a fact finding mission type thing), she said no she hadnt yet...

...so I said that she should go to the Tate to which she said (mimicking the way I pronounced it really well) where is the T-a-a-a-a-yyyyyyyyt I shuddered a little inside as to just how horrible I sound ;o).

LOL I now have a complex about the way that I am speaking ;o)

Monday 24 January 2011

a frozen chip on her shoulder

I was watching Dancing on Ice last night on television.

From this series the judging panel has gone down from five to three...

...one of the ex judges Karen Barber (who was always one of the coaches), has gone from being a judge to being the head coach.  A sideways move but she is still in on the game so to speak.

And she sits at the side with the celebrity contestants and when the judges have criticed they then ask her what she thinks...

...you can tell by her answers that she isnt happy no longer being a judge..

...she will just have to suck it up!

I was watching the skate off last night and I thought that Dominic Cork had a bit of a stumble but yet the judges voted off Steven Arnold LOL I guess it was where he missed a choreography session because he slept through his alarm!

Timekeeping is obviously more important to the judges than the skating ability!

Sunday 23 January 2011

QI has just ruined "who built the ark"

James is watching QI and Stephen Fry just asked how many sheep were on the ark?  I shouted out two (as in from the song "who built the ark?")...

...apparently the clean animals were on there in sevens!  Sevens and not twos!

So ok...

...what other things have been lied to me through lyrics?

Did Ma Baker even have four sons?  Was she really not able to cry and did she really teach her sons how to die?

And what about Billy?  I have shed so many tears for him!

When I first heard the song as a four year old (my Mum will remember me crying when I first heard his fiancĂ©e throwing the letter away over hearing of his death), in actual fact I have a lump in my throat now!

different scales

This morning I decided to weigh myself to see how my diet is going...

I walked into Boots to use their sales and shock horror it had a hand written sign on it saying "out of order" I pulled up the sign and saw that the scales were switched on, so I guess they must have run out of paper for the receipt that says how much you weigh and stuff.

I didnt want to risk being given the wrong weight so I used another set of scales that was near by...

...so I walked to the other scales (got James to hold my coat as it doesnt have a coat hook on it), stepped on the scales put my 50 pence in stood dead still so it can weigh and measure my height (LOL I seem to differ from 5 foot 3.7 to five foot 4.1 ;o)). looked at the scale and for a moment I thought that I had put on two pounds (for that split second I felt completely and utterly gutted) then I realised that I had actually lost two pounds and went back to feeling happy...

...yes by using my full ass I managed to lose two pounds (just over two pounds as it was a kilogram) - and I have still had chocolate every day - so when James gingerly (and at great cost to his wellbeing I may add) pointed out that I should try cutting out the chocolate, I say "see I can do it" ;o).

Yesterday while I was in M&S I saw these gorgeous looking desserts ;o)


The only pitfalls I have this week is a colleagues birthday which means booze and sandwiches (LOL it would be rude not to go and participate ;o)). But to counteract it I have bought a low calories snackpot to have for my dinner that night ;o)

Friday 21 January 2011

the early bird catches the maintenance man

As you know from previous posts, I work on the third floor...

In our toilets we have intelligent lighting, and there is a motion senser in the floor by the door. There are ladies toliets on the second and fourth floors.

On my way in in the morning I use the toilets on the second floor - the senser in there must be set for a fairly long time as the lights have never gone off while Im attending to my "business".

During the day I use the toilets on the fourth floor (for some reason I prefer walking upto the toilets rather than down), and if you are in there for a while then the lights will go off, I am not the only person that this has happened to as I have walked in there on countless occasions to see someone brushing there hair in the dark!

This morning I was walking up the stairs and saw two maintenance guys and explained to them about the intelligent lighting in the ladies, and trying to explain to them the problems without being VERY explicit.

They said that they would have a look at them for me - so fingers crossed ;o)

Thursday 20 January 2011

pushing the completing date back already

After the Christmas break the ticket barriers at Chelmsford train station were out of use (effectively they were left open so you can just walk straight through).

On the following Monday the ticket barriers had completely disappeared and a sign was up saying that between 6th January and 7th February the ticket barriers would be refurbished with "state of the art ones" and that the work to fit them would take place overnight.

This morning I got to the station and there was a new sign up saying that the work on the ticket barriers has been pushed back to March. LOL it doesnt say whether it is the beginning or end of the month though ;o)

Wednesday 19 January 2011

ten photographs

Following on from my post this morning...

...here are the ten photographs that I have uploaded to flickr for the competition










photography competition

When I am going home in the evening on the train I read the paper v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y - and I also tend to fall asleep (but luckily have *touches wooden desk* always woken up in time for Chelmsford station).

On Monday James was reading through the paper and asked me if I had seen the photography competition that they are running? To which I grabbed the paper out of his hands and eagerly read it...

As luck would have it the photographs for the competition are to be uploaded to flickr.

So yesterday morning I was rummaging (virtually as I was looking through my photos online) to see which ones may be possible entries...

I came across nine possibles - James also uploaded four ;o)

One of my favourites of mine is this one ;o)

Monday 17 January 2011

cleaning windows in the rain

I was walking to work this morning (in the pouring rain) from the train station and to my amazement I saw a window cleaner and yes he was cleaning windows!

Surely to goodness he would have looked out of the window after getting up this morning see that it was raining and stay in, well at least that is what I would have done anyhow.

I know he is probably self employed and he has contracts to abide to, but still...

Sunday 16 January 2011

No more firecrackers

The sausage lady has stopped doing sausages!

Apparently my custom of buying six sausages each week isnt enough to keep them going :o(

Her hubby said that the price of meat has meant that the sausage side of the business has been losing loads of money.

But luckily there is another lady who does sausages so if they are as nice enough then it will be a case of "the sausage lady is dead, long live the sausage lady" ;o). LOL she even did one with similar flavours as the firecracker - the ones I bought are sweet chilli with coriander.

I just hope that they are as nice, if not I will have to look for something else.

Saturday 15 January 2011

Insensitive jerk

Firstly I would like to apologise in advance for the bloke bashing that is about to commence ;o)

This morning we were coming home from being in town and James turned around and said that I am in my normal "period" mood and that I was being rude sarcastic and argumentative! And that he only has to ride it out for a couple of days and then I would be back to being "normal"!

My first thought was to clonk him one, then I realised that I would only be adding fuel to the fire...

...so I seethed!

I felt like saying to him to try being in immense pain for three days and to see what it does to his tolerance level.

I would say that my normal tolerance level is a nine but with PMS it goes down to a two, and I do put up with a lot of sh1t...

What gets me is that I will soon be back to being my normal self but James will still be an insensitive jerk!

Friday 14 January 2011

like he will even get a look in

In yesterdays mail I got a leaflet from the tasting club about a his n hers chocolate box for Valentines Day.

James was looking at the leaflet and said the poor guy wont even get a look in if the chocolate box gets ordered...

...you know what I have to agree.

And no I wont be ordering a box, as I am still working my way through my Christmas box ;o)

Thursday 13 January 2011

bullcr@p & demonstrations

This morning I heard one of my colleagues giving a load of bullcr@p to his assistant about how he doesnt like people who are all 2 faced...

...I had to really keep my mouth shut as he is all 2 faced himself! But I did smile inside ;o)

At lunchtime I was all geared up to have a seven vegetable rice bowl from Itsu, but on leaving the office I heard some sort of demonstration going on, as I didnt want to go anywhere near the demonstration I got thai chicken noodle instead from Sainsburys.

Wednesday 12 January 2011

the trains are doing my head in

Ever since the clocks went back at the end of October the trains havent ran to time (its like the trains drivers are scared of the dark or something!).

Back on the 10th December the timetables changed...

Pre 10th December I used to get a nice air conditioned train that happened to leave from a platform where the next train I could catch would leave from the adjoining platform. So if I couldnt get a seat on my normal train then I could walk across to the other train and I would have a seat.

Post 10th December the train is no longer air conditioned (this is ok in the Winter but will be a whole different story in the Summer) and leaves from a single platform, and whilst the next train I can catch leaves from the next platform you have to walk back to the barriers to get to the other platform (after a hard day at work the last thing you want to do is have to faff about walking between platforms). And it now leaves two minutes earlier but also stops at Stratford station and effectively (if running on time) gets to Chelmsford at the same time.

Since we have had the snow (over a month ago now Im hastened to add) our trains have been running with fewer carriages as the "severe weather" has caused train faults! Why didnt they spend their millions of pounds when upgrading the trains to ones that will work in the cold weather? Come on nxea the weather is hardly the tropics here!

And now onto why I am in a strop...

...last night I got to the train and I spotted a couple of empty seat but stupidly didnt get one, so I was walking along the platform and the carriages were more and more crowded, so I spot an empty seat push the entry button on the door and it doesnt work, so I walk along to the next door get on the train and start walking along the carriage and someone has taken the seat, by now its too late to get off of the train (as the driver has shut the doors) so I end up standing. I didnt even have a comfy place to stand either. Then the train gets to Stratford and more people pile on!

In todays Metro there was a "no sh1t" article about how bloggers reveal their personalities through their words ;o) Really? I wonder what the experts would think of mine ;o)

Sunday 9 January 2011

not as bad as I thought...

I decided to bite the bullet this morning and see how much I weighed...

...I had a figure in my head (bearing in mind that I had my holiday and Christmas) of being one stone heavier (14 pounds) then I was in October, but I had only put on 5 pounds, so am well chuffed ;o).

As they say "the proof of the pudding is in the eating" (dont you just love all of these food related puns) so I will see how I am next week and as to whether I have to reassess the situation as Fagin would say ;o).

LOL you can tell its January as the diet shows are starting! I love seeing people transforming themselves ;o)

Thursday 6 January 2011

Happy Epiphany

Its Epiphany again...

LOL when In was a kid my Mum would always keep the Christmas decorations up until Epiphany ;o) For a couple of years after we came back to England (from Italy) my Mum would even save back one of our Christmas presents so that we would have an Epiphany present ;o)

Tuesday 4 January 2011

Sunday I woke up feeling weird

On Sunday I woke up and my tummy felt really weird - like I wanted to either be sick or have a poop.

I was a bit slow moving (I dont exactly move at lightening speed anyway) and James asked me if I was ok to which I said no and said how I felt.

LOL he must have been concerned because he offered to do the shopping on his own (and he absolutely HATES food shopping)!

Anyhow after doing the shopping we went into town (I was still feeling quite queasy) and we went into Starbucks and I forced myself to have a croissant with my venti skinny latte (needless to say the croissant was a bad idea).

I stayed in bed for the rest of Sunday afternoon and Monday morning (and consequently couldnt sleep last night!

Project Flickr started this week and the theme for week 1 is motion & movement - these are the photos that I have taken...




Saturday 1 January 2011

Gosh its 2011

Happy New Year ;o)

May 2011 be better than 2010 for all of us...

LOL I am having a last blow out this weekend then will be attempting to stick to 1500 calories per day, so I can go back to being slim and sylph like ;o)

We all know that my 8 week challenge last year went all pear shaped (Kelly Im referring to the third meaning ;o)).

I dont tend to make New Years Resolutions, so at least I cant go moaning at the beginning of March that it all went wrong...